HURLING All Star Alan McCrabbe may yet be able to line out for Dublin against Tipperary next weekend, despite being stretchered off last Sunday with a suspected broken leg.

McCrabbe's injury added to the Dubs' disastrous league opener against Waterford but manager Anthony Daly has since been relieved to find it was not as serious as first feared.

The Craobh Chiarain star was taken straight from Walsh Park to Waterford Regional Hospital but X-rays revealed he does not have any broken bones.

He has a badly bruised knee and a strain on the shinbone below the knee and is currently on crutches and painkillers. But the team management have not ruled out the possibility that he could yet play some part when they take on Tipperary at Parnell Park next Sunday.

McCrabbe won his All Star at midfield last year -- the first for a Dublin hurler in 19 years -- and he is the linchpin of Daly's team.

"He has a level of hurling, that first touch and speed, that the rest of the lads don't have," Daly said last week.

Liam Ryan, who has been having some ankle trouble, trained for half an hour last weekend, which indicates that he is on the way back but both he and David O'Callaghan (hamstring) are likely to miss out again this weekend. Facing the beaten All-Ireland finalists, even if it is their second game in six days, is a big test of last year's Leinster runners-up but Daly insists it is up to his players to lift themselves.

"It looks a daunting task at the moment but the National League is funny, every Sunday is different," Daly said. "The players have to show now that they want it.

"They can let it drop down now and take another hiding off Tipperary or come out and fight the fight. We'll certainly know a lot more about ourselves after next Sunday."